Provenance:

The Artist.

Private Collection, Goleta, California, acquired from the Artist, c. 1979.

Acquired by the present owners, 2019.

Lot Note:

Dating to 1978, Way Down East: Director D.W. Griffith Monument Study and Star Lillian Gish are preparatory drawings for Red Grooms’s monumental sculpture Way Down East, commissioned by Northern Kentucky University. Inspired by D. W. Griffith’s 1920 silent film of the same name, Grooms focused on its dramatic climax, in which Gish’s character is swept across a breaking sheet of ice toward a waterfall. In the present drawings, Grooms captures the two principal figures with characteristic exaggeration and theatricality: Griffith appears seated and commanding, directing the action through an oversized megaphone, while Gish reaches outward in a gesture of alarm. The contrast between the director’s composed, authoritative pose and the actress’s animated movement underscores Grooms’s playful interplay between filmmaking and performance.

Through bold outlines, vivid colors, and emphatic gestures, the drawings demonstrate Grooms’s process of translating cinematic characters into his distinctive visual language. Their energetic poses and caricatured proportions anticipate the larger-than-life figures of the finished sculpture, which Grooms developed from a balsa wood, paper, and watercolor maquette before it was realized in painted aluminum in 1979. As works on paper, the drawings preserve the immediacy of Grooms’s conception, offering a particularly intimate view of his transformation of a celebrated moment in film history into a theatrical sculptural tableau.

D.W. Griffith
signed Red Grooms and dated (lower right)
Sight: 69 x 62 1/2 in.
Framed: 75 x 68 1/4 x 1 in.

Sheet is unevenly toned. Scattered surface soiling. Remnants of previous adhesive present to top left and right corners with associated skinning. Two pinholes to top right corner. Small tears with associated loss to top right and left corners. Handling creases throughout. Three strong, horizontal creases run the length of the work, and one deep vertical crease runs through the center, with associated tears and loss along all creases. Two small area of skinning above megaphone at left. Additional images available upon request.

Lillian Gish
signed Red Grooms and dated (lower right)
Sight: 51 x 78 in.
Framed: 57 x 84 x 1 in.

Pinholes present to all four corners. Small loss at top right corner. Handling creases throughout. Three strong, vertical creases run the length of the work, and one deep horizontal crease runs through the center, with associated tears and loss along all creases. Diagonal tear at top left corner measuring approx. 3 inches. Area of skinning to right of figure's extended hand. Scattered surface soiling, for example near lower left corner along extreme left edge. Pieces of masking tape present, for example along extreme left edge and extreme bottom edge near lower left corner. Undulation to paper throughout. Additional images available upon request.

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